Rick Perry Channels the Boss

Daniel Halper

“Obviously, 18, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often, and that’s what’s occurred here,” the Republican presidential candidate told Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But, you know, when you’re in war, and history kind of backs up — there’s a picture of General Patton doing basically the same thing in the Rhine River. And although there’s not a picture, Churchill did the same thing on the Siegfried line.”

As The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol notes, a 1945 photo captured General George S. Patton urinating into the Rhine River in full view of his soldiers. And Winston Churchill, too, is reported to have urinated on the Siegfried Line, the German World War II defensive line. But neither man was known to have urinated on human corpses....

“The idea that this administration would go after these young people for a criminal act — again, I think it is over the top,” Perry said when asked how the incident should be handled. “Did they make a mistake? Absolutely. Should they be reprimanded and appropriately punished? Yes. But going after them as a criminal act, I think -- really bad message.”

Too bad Texas governor Rick Perry’s campaign for president never took off. His instincts on issues, ranging from immigration to foreign policy to the military, seem pretty good across the board.